Tag Archives: Texas cities vs Big Government Austin

As previously discussed, the opposition by city and county leaders to Texas-style Big Government has formed.

Launched just this week, the group Local Control Texas has already proven to be quite the diverse group. Whether Liberal or Conservative, urban or rural, all have united because they recognize that recent actions by Governor Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and many Austin Lawmakers are harmful to Texas communities. They’re keeping an updated list of the staggering number intrusive bills already filed during the 84th session.

We are writing to urge you to limit state government interference with local government policymaking, especially when it comes to quality of life policies. Communities around this state have to balance competing interests, and drawing from different perspectives and values they have arrived at different policies on issues as diverse as single-use bag pollution, heritage trees, oil and gas production, historic preservation, smoking in public places, sexually oriented businesses, payday lending and vagrancy. In most of these cases, the state has offered little to no assistance in alleviating the challenge that municipalities face. We ask that you refrain from hindering local governments’ abilities to serve the interests of their residents by pre-empting possible solutions on these issues.

We, the undersigned, do not all agree on any particular policy on any of these issues, but we are united in a firm opposition to any attempt by the Legislature or Governor to tell our respective communities how we should deal with these issues. In each of these cases local governments and our neighborhoods are shouldering these burdens with little to no help from the state government.

The group encourages all supporters to email their state legislators, and join the cause. With now fully-organized opposition to these brazen moves, it will be difficult for Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick to turn a blind eye to the issue of local control.

And umm, just for the record, not a single one of these bills was filed by a Democrat.